Papers paid for police information

Two national newspapers paid to receive confidential information from the police national computer, a court heard today.

Articles from the Sunday Mirror and the Mail on Sunday were used in evidence against two former police employees and two private investigators charged with offences involving the sale of police information to the press.

The court heard that Stephen Whittamore, a 56-year-old private investigator with links to the national press, provided "very personal and confidential details" about a series of high-profile figures, including the EastEnders actors Charlie Brooks and Jessie Wallace, Bob Crow, general secretary of the Rail Maritime and Transport Union, and Clifton Tomlinson, the son of the actor Ricky Tomlinson, to newspapers.

Riel Karmy-Jones, prosecuting, told Blackfriars crown court Whittamore had received the information "through a chain" made up of the three other defendants: private investigator John Boyall, 52; Alan King, a 59-year-old retired police officer; and Paul Marshall, 39, a former civilian communications officer who was based at Tooting police station in London.

"It was Paul Marshall who had access to the police national computer and who carried out the unauthorised checks upon it, passing his findings up through the chain to Whittamore, who in turn disseminated it for financial reward," she added.

The resulting articles included a story in the Sunday Mirror on May 12 2002 about Ms Wallace, headlined "Kat's guilty secrets. She hides criminal past from EastEnder bosses", and articles in the Mail on Sunday and the Sunday Mirror on May 19 2002 covering the Millwall soccer riots and the suspected involvement of two brothers, John and David Grimwade.

Also mentioned were a December 1 2002 article in the Sunday Mirror on Clifton Tomlinson, and a February 2 2003 article in the Mail on Sunday about Mr Crow and his means of transport to work.

Ms Karmy-Jones also said the Sunday Mirror reporter, Euan Stretch, had requested information about Anthony Truman, the partner of the EastEnders actress Brooks.

At the judge's request, Ms Karmy-Jones did not name any more of the journalists involved.

She said they had all been interviewed about the sale of confidential police information to the press, but that there had been insufficient evidence to bring charges against them.

Marshall and King both pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit misconduct in a public office, while Whittamore and Boyall pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of breaching the data protection act. All four were today given a two-year conditional discharge.

Judge John Samuels QC, said the defendants must have realised the lives of individuals concerned would be "adversely affected" by their actions.

"The vice of what those who admit the primary conspiracy in this case actually did was to make known to the press information which on any view ought to have been kept confidential and which on any view was bound to cause at the very least immense embarrassment to those members of the public who were entitled to require the state and its organs to maintain confidentiality in relation to their affairs," he said.

"It is an interesting comment that some of you in the course of statements that were made on your behalf referred to such concepts as client confidentiality.

"The reality is that all of you must have realised that if information relating to particular individuals in whom the press for newsworthy reasons had an interest became available, the lives of those individuals would be adversely affected."